Why Does No One “Like” My Facebook Posts?

Last year was a big year for the ladies of the Blue Corona office. Four of my female coworkers got engaged, and another announced a pregnancy with her first child. Most of these milestones were coupled with cutesy Facebook posts—of which got likes of bombastic numbers:

225

300+

750+?!?!

Meanwhile, I caught a homerun ball at a National’s game last year (while proudly sporting a Blue Corona tank top, I might add). How many likes did that get? A measly 50. At least I got a few good GIFs out of it…

This relates to your business—I promise.

Yesterday I was doing a social media audit for a local used car dealership. Their Facebook page had a healthy 350 likes and their posts were on point in terms of both content and frequency. They mixed up posts about new, used vehicles in stock (I couldn’t help but eye up one of their used Mercedes…) with funny commentary on low gas prices. They even threw in exclusive discounts and offers for their social media followers. The problem was, 99% of their posts had absolutely ZERO engagement. No likes, no shares, no comments, no love.

Aside from posting a baby announcement/engagement or attempting to catch a homerun ball, what’s a company got to do to get more likes?

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No One Likes Your Company’s Facebook Posts Because…

1. …You’re Not Promoting Them.

Facebook newsfeed has an algorithm to determine exactly what content to display in each user’s feed. Imagine how overwhelming it would be to see every update from every person, business, and organization you follow!

This is a common misunderstanding about social media amongst business owners—that if you have 350 followers, all 350 of them will see your posts. In reality, unless you pay to promote your posts, only about 2% of your followers will see them. And they can’t like what they don’t see!

Even if your business is small, that’s no excuse to not put some budget into a promoted Facebook post campaign. It doesn’t take much! Even putting $1 behind a post can drastically improve reach and interaction.

2. …You’re Posting at the Wrong Times.

The best practices for when to post on Facebook seem to change all the time. According to an article published yesterday by HubSpot, the best days of the week to post are Thursday and Friday (engagement rates fall 3.5% below average Monday – Wednesday) and the best time of the day to post is early afternoon.

However, every industry is different. HubSpot recommends using a Facebook monitoring tool like fanpage karma to see engagement per daytime stats to help tailor your posting schedule.

If you’re a small business, you can probably save yourself a few bucks and get away with eyeballing it.

3. …You’re Posting the Wrong Things.

Unless your name is Bradley Cooper (hello, handsome), it’s not always about you! If all of your posts are basically hard sells for your company, you’re doing it wrong!

Think of it this way—Facebook is not Amazon, which means people aren’t on the page with the direct intention of buying something.

A simple social media law to live by is the 80/20 rule:

20 – the maximum percentage of your posts that promote your brand with the goal of driving conversions. These posts should include clear calls to action with easy directions for contacting you.

80 – the percentage of posts that should appeal to your audience’s interests with the goal of driving conversation. Social Media Examiner has some good examples of these types of posts here.

4. …You Don’t Have Enough Fans.

I see plenty of companies that simply don’t have enough fans to receive any kind of significant engagement. If this is the case for your company, you need to build your following.

I don’t recommend buying your fans (I’ll get to that in a minute), but there are some other strategies you can employ to increase your Facebook followers.

Give people a reason to like you – It’s probably not enough to post a “Like Us on Facebook” button on your website. Give people a reason to like you. Some people go the contest or giveaway route: “Like us on Facebook for a chance to win a free Macbook Air!”, “The first 500 people to like our Facebook get a free tshirt!” Or you could take a more traditional route: “Like us on Facebook for more tips on how to outrank your competitors in search results!”, “Make sure you never miss a blog post—like us on Facebook!”

Include like boxes on your website – This might seem like a no-brainer, but I’ve seen plenty of businesses that don’t link from their website to their social media profiles.

Use Facebook ads – If you have the budget for it, that is.

Utilize thank you pages – Most company websites feature an online contact form for generating web leads, but most thank you pages following the form leave much to be desired. Use your thank you page to try and generate a secondary conversion—a like to your Facebook page. And remember to give people a reason to like you!

5. ….You Bought Your Fans.

This time last year, Veritasium YouTube channel owner Derek Muller performed an experiment with Facebook advertising to find out if paying for likes on Facebook was worth it. The video generated a lot of press as Muller uncovered that even buying Facebook likes legitimately through Facebook (as opposed to through a third party, which is against Facebook’s statement of rights and responsibility) turns out to be somewhat of a scam.

When you buy Facebook likes, most of the likes are from developing countries—making them irrelevant for your local business. When Muller used paid promotion through Facebook, he went from having around 2,000 likes to 70,000 likes. However, he noticed that the level of engagement from his fans (likes, shares, comments, etc.) didn’t increase. In fact, it decreased.

That makes sense when you consider that Facebook is only sharing your updates to a portion of your followers (like I mentioned above). If all of those followers are fake Facebook accounts or users in developing countries who have no interest in your business, it’s no wonder they don’t engage.

What to Do When No One “Likes” Your Facebook Posts? Get a Free Social Media Analysis from Blue Corona

Want a free social media analysis? Our social media specialists will identify areas where your business can improve its social media presence.

Don’t have a social media presence? We can help there too. If you mention this blog post, we’ll give you a free 3-month social media package when you sign up for three months of SEO services. After all, SEO and social media go together like pizza and…more pizza. Contact us online today or give us a call.

About The Author: Blue Corona is a data-driven online marketing company with offices in Gaithersburg, MD and Charlotte, N.C.
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